


It Takes, and It Takes, and It Takes

by illxmination



Series: As We Spiral Into the Dark [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Injury Recovery, Mental Anguish, One Shot, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:06:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29546283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illxmination/pseuds/illxmination
Summary: [And if there's a reason we're still alive while our son half-died, then we're willing to wait for it.]Jack's not fine; he's the furthest thing from fine, actually. The same applies to Maddie.How can you be fine when your (former) best friend tried to kill you and your son is the ghost you hunted for the last year-and-a-half?
Series: As We Spiral Into the Dark [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2046470
Comments: 10
Kudos: 58





	It Takes, and It Takes, and It Takes

**Author's Note:**

> A companion piece set after "What Means the Most" - better known as an excuse to write out more feelings with Jack and Maddie after Vlad ends up showing his true colors.

“Breathe, Fenton. Breathe.”

Jack Fenton sat up in his bed with one hand on his face and one leg off the side of the bed. Maddie stirred next to him, and he closed his eyes. The clock read 2:11 AM, a sad reminder that the man had only been asleep for two hours and six minutes.

The burn markings on his arm twinged with a pain that he knew should have been disappearing after over a month yet remained.

How fucked up was that?

Jack stood up, shuffling quietly to the bathroom, and turning on the light. He turned on the faucet, splashing cold water over his face and leaning over the sink. One glance in the mirror showed his exhausted state and a severe lack of sleep; he could have argued that it was all the nights staying up for research into ghosts.

He could have also argued it was studying old footage of his son over the last year and a half.

As he dried off his face and walked back into the bedroom, though, a light flicked on with a new face gazing at him as he shut off the bathroom light. “Again?”

Jack’s shoulders slumped at the gentle question, shaking his head. “Must not be just me if you’re awake now too.”

“Moving off the bed in the middle of the night is a little hard to ignore,” Maddie replied.

“Maybe we need a new mattress.”

It was playful banter truthfully, but the unspoken question hung in the air between the two of them. Jack trudged back to the bed, sitting on the mattress with a sigh before swinging his legs over and up. Maddie tilted her head gently to one side, a hand on his arm and feeling him shudder. “Talk to me.”

There was no answer at this, Jack looking down at the comforter and letting the request hang in the air. She sighed softly, keeping her eyes on her husband. “…Jack. I know it’s eating you.”

“I dunno how- talking about it is gonna help,” he mumbled. “It happened. It’s done. I’m still an idiot for what’s happened and—“

Maddie shook her head. “Then that makes two of us.”

He looked at her now and frowned. “You confronted Vlad about it; you actually went to tell him about how you had a feeling.” Jack let out a soft scoff. “I was too scared to do anything about it, much less too blind to actually see what he had been doing to our son.”

“Again, it makes two of us.”

Jack pulled his knees up to his chest at this, looking ahead again with his head rest on his knees. For all the moments he was going to blame himself with what happened when they had been held hostage, Maddie was going to be right there with him taking part of the blame.

He was not entirely sure how to take that.

“He’s got every right to hate us,” he said.

Maddie’s hand moved down his arm, giving her husband a sad smile.

“All that talk of wanting to tear apart the ghost kid molecule by molecule and examine his remains… shoot him down and see what makes him tick, trying to protect the city from our son. Our _son,_ Mads.” Jack closed his eyes. “Fourteen years old, and we wanted him dead.”

She inhaled slowly, closing her eyes. “Yet he tries to make it out as a joke. I know it’s his way of coping, but.”

Jack snorted. “Yeah, ‘cause we’re so great at it ourselves. I’m up at two-fifteen after a nightmare about Vlad and—”

“Ah. There it is.”

He groaned. “Don’t even get me started about that.”

“It’s only _reasonable_ ,” she countered gently. “He held us hostage in our own _house._ ”

“It’s _stupid._ I wasn’t scared for myself; I was scared for _you_ and Jazz.” It was becoming more and more clear to Maddie what the real issue was. “I couldn’t defend our own family from the Wisconsin Ghost that was sitting under our roof the whole time. Hell, Danny knew for god knows how long; Jazz probably knew at some point, and we. We just let the entire thing go right under our noses.”

Maddie sighed. “Which means we let a _lot_ more pass us by than we knew- the attack by the ghost king, Pariah Dark and how Vlad showed up from the Ghost Zone under _mysterious_ circumstances. The reunion at his castle, the trip Danny and I went on and got stranded in Colorado—”

“—the million-dollar bounty he put over Danny’s head—”

“—even the ecto-acne incident with him _and_ Sam and Tucker,” she finished, her voice darkening. “I _really_ should have given him the boot when I had the chance.”

Jack moaned softly. “All I managed to do is ruin Danny’s _entire life_ with this.”

“Yes well. He _did_ comment that me shooting at him would cost us quite a bit of therapy,” she reiterated dryly. “He was kind enough to mention that when I told him we knew, so _again._ We both managed to.”

The silence hung in the air between the two of them for what seemed like several minutes. Jack looked down again at his knees against his frame and to his burn wounds on his wrists.

One could have called it a blame game, but really, Jack believed it was his fault.

All of it was.

“Jack?”

He jolted out of his thoughts with another exhale. “What?”

Maddie’s hand slid off his shoulder, and she found herself looking at the comforter as well. There it was again; it was the uncertainty of what to say about the entire ordeal between the family of four and how to look at their son and former best friend.

What the hell else _was_ there to say?

“You think he hates us?” she muttered.

“He’ll probably say he doesn’t to make us feel better,” he admitted, finally turning to look at her, “but he probably won’t trust us for a long time, either.”

Maddie wrapped her arms around herself at this, closing her eyes now. “True. Even if he _does_ let us in, it makes me wonder if he’s…”

The sentence hung in the air between them; Jack gingerly wrapped an arm around her.

“How do we fix this?” she whispered. “How can we even _start_ fixing this with him?”

Jack shook his head. “Maybe we can’t.”

Silence again.

“…we really are a hell of a pair, aren’t we?” Her voice cracked.

“Yeah.” It was exhausted as he laid back on the bed with her in his arm. She reached and turned the light off before curling into his embrace. “Yeah, Mads. I’d say we are.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was an excuse for me to write out angst I've been holding in for a little time without killing anyone... yet.
> 
> I have a [Tumblr!](https://feralhalfghost.tumblr.com/) Please feel free to come and talk to me.


End file.
